How fast can you shoot pure lead 30 cal with pc
How fast can you shoot pure lead 30 cal with pc
Following out of curiosity for others experience
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More details please. PC has no speed limit we see but PB bullets cast with pure do. 11-1200 is my guess.
Whatever!
Not a .30, but a while back, I shot a very nice group, near MOA, with pure lead out of the Ruger 77/357 that was PCed with HF Red using enough Promo for 1200 fps or so. After the first group, things fell apart. I figured it was fouling, but after much more shooting with the rifle, I think it is very sensitive to heat. Not sure how the faster twist rate of most 30's would affect things, but probably not favorably.
The Powder Coat is not the limiting factor - most will prevent leading up to the velocity limits of a similar weight jacketed bullet; but your accuracy will deteriorate as velocity increases somewhere in the 850 to 1200 FPS velocity range.
THE LIMITING FACTOR is the strength of the alloy the boolit is cast from. A pure lead boolit will not hold up to the shear of being driven through a barrel at higher velocity. As one changes the bullet alloy; increasing velocities can be achieved while retaining some level of accuracy.
Mustang
"In the beginning... the patriot is a scarce man, and brave and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot." - Mark Twain.
Like Mustang said and also the "size" of bullet (fit in a specific barrel). "Obturation" is the bullets ability to expand thus trapping gases BEHIND and not allowing gas cutting around the sides of the bullet. In other words, take a Pc'd bullet and "slug" your barrel with a wooden dowel.
The unexamined life is not worth living....Socrates
Pain, is just weakness leaving the body....USMC
Fast is fine, but accuracy is FINAL!....Wyatt Earp
I personally have fired PC pure lead in handguns in excess of 1400 fps., never tried it in a rifle. It is the copper jacket that withstands the torque of spinup in a standard jacketed bullet, not the soft inner alloy. I think the key for PC rifle bullets is to increase the polymer jacket thickness. When I got into PC a polymer physicist estimated 3+ mill build out for 50K of chamber pressure. This is where I believe having undersize molds designed for PC would be an asset. If I shot more rifle I would go for a custom mold.
I double coat for rifle and shoot range scrap (bin 11) at full power. Bullet design and fit to barrel is the real key to PC cast accuracy.
If I wanted to push pure lead to its limits I'd size and recoat a number of times. If you can get pure lead to survive through the bore the limit is upwards of 2200 fps. They get that with paperpatch.
Ive fired powdercoated 20-1alloy in a henry 357 with a max charge of 296 into water jugs at 50'. Made a real nice mushroom. Rifling marks near base of boolit looked perfect.
I dont own a chrono, and it was a lee tl358-158-swc. Soon ill follow your your path. Just getting other projects finnished up.
An old Cherokee was teaching his grandson about life. "Inside me two wolves fight," he told the boy.
"One is evil - he is anger, envy, greed, arrogance, self-pity, resentment, lies, false pride, and ego. The other is good - he is joy, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, generosity, truth and faith. The same fight is inside you - and every other person, too."
The grandson thought for a minute and asked,"Which wolf will win?"
The old Cherokee replied, "The one you feed."
Shot ladders with the 7.62x39 out of my BCA AR-15 pushing PC cast to 2100fps with recovered boolits showing no obvious damage.
First, it depends on the rate of twist in your barrel. As mentioned above, it is the rotational speed that is the limit. I would not try pure lead but maybe something like 1:20 which is what the BPCR folks seem to use.
Without powder coating most .30 cal lead alloy bullets can get up to the low 2000fps range and not cause problems. With a slower twist barrel you can get a bit higher than that.
Powder coat seems to add a bit to the strength of the bullet. I have fired them at 2400fps in my 10 twist .308 barrel and had decent groups. I am not interested in going higher than that. But, it means if you have a 14 twist you could easily go over 2500fps. Shooting heavy bullets that is in the jacketed bullet range. I am using a hardball alloy.
Someone should try it and see.
I didn't get pure lead loaded yet I'm out of 5744 but I shot some range lead over 11 grain unique 311672 bullet pc makes the nose fit better than without so that made a good difference course they aren't going all that fast either
[QUOTE pressure time curve make a world of difference.[/QUOTE]
What gunpowder were you using to get this favorable pressure time curve?
NRA Lifetime member since 1956, NRA Endowment Member. Reloading since 1954. CBA Member Navy Vietnam Veteran USS Intrepid CVA 11
I cheated and added 16/1 pewter to my pure lead and shoot sub MOA at 100 yards out of my 77/44 at 1600 FPS. I ran it all the way to max loads without leading. PC’d and GC’d of course. Adding 16% pewter to my mix took the alloy up from 5BH lead flooring up to 7.5bH. Not much of a jump but my HP cast boolits sure hold together better and mushroom very well.
Last edited by Tripplebeards; 04-09-2020 at 02:36 PM.
BP | Bronze Point | IMR | Improved Military Rifle | PTD | Pointed |
BR | Bench Rest | M | Magnum | RN | Round Nose |
BT | Boat Tail | PL | Power-Lokt | SP | Soft Point |
C | Compressed Charge | PR | Primer | SPCL | Soft Point "Core-Lokt" |
HP | Hollow Point | PSPCL | Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" | C.O.L. | Cartridge Overall Length |
PSP | Pointed Soft Point | Spz | Spitzer Point | SBT | Spitzer Boat Tail |
LRN | Lead Round Nose | LWC | Lead Wad Cutter | LSWC | Lead Semi Wad Cutter |
GC | Gas Check |